Adisa Banjoko is the founder of the Hip Hop Chess Federation, a not-for-profit association based in San Francisco that teaches young people about strategy and non-violence through the skills and shared philosophies of hip hop, chess, and martial arts.
He spoke to Kathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon this morning.
“What a lot of people don’t know is that hip hop music has celebrated chess and the philosophies of chess more than any other form of music on earth. When people hear it, it sounds bizarre to them, and I understand that, because a lot of people don’t understand the history of hip hop music, and they don’t understand where America was when hip hop began.”
Listen to the Hip Hop Chess Federation’s mixtape, Street Games Vol. 1, here via Soundcloud:
Cover image supplied to Radio New Zealand